Hamburg Open: Grosjean, Ancic advance

Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean produced the first upset of the Hamburg Masters with victory over 11th seed Joachim Johansson in the opening round.

Reported by Indo-Asian News Service

Read Time: 3 mins

Hamburg:

Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean produced the first upset of the Hamburg Masters with victory over 11th seed Joachim Johansson in the opening round on Monday.
The latest stop in the ATP's Masters Series has taken the world's top tennis players to Hamburg in Germany, with the opening round of matches taking place on Monday.
Mayer succumbs
Big-serving Mario Ancic faced one of the many Germans in the draw, Florian Mayer. Unfortunately, for the expectant German crowd, Mayer was never in the contest and succumbed meekly in straight sets.
Ancic raced through the opening set 6-1, before pushing on to clinch the second 6-2.
The match was over when Mayer failed to return another of the Croat's big serves, and Ancic was able to celebrate a comfortable victory.
Rusedski struggles
Another big server, Briton Greg Rusedski, also faced a German in the little-known Philipp Petzschner.
But Rusedski did not have as comfortable a ride as Ancic and was pushed to three sets by his opponent.
The Briton won the opener in a tiebreak, but Petzschner hit back to level the match, making good use of a deceptive drop shot to move Rusedski around the court.
In the decider, Rusedski's experience told and the former US Open finalist pressured his opponent into a few more errors.
After securing the vital break of serve, the left-hander served out the match to win 7-6, 3-6, 6-3.
Monday's opening round also featured an all-German clash with Nicolas Kiefer taking on Philipp Kohlschreiber.
The more experienced Kiefer had little trouble in getting past his compatriot and triumphed in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3.
The upset of the day saw Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean beat 11th seeded Swede Joachim Johansson.
Grosjean is in his element on the clay surface and Johansson was always going to have a tough match against the Frenchman.
Grosjean gave Johansson absolutely nothing to hit and negated the power of the Swede's serve to cruise comfortably to a straight sets victory, 6-1, 6-4.
Focus on Nadal
The Hamburg Masters is the last big men's event before the year's second grand slam tournament, the French Open, and the man tipped to go close at Roland Garros is in-form Spaniard Rafael Nadal.
The 18-year-old is the man to beat, at the moment, having won three successive titles in a 17-game winning streak.
On Sunday he beat Guillermo Coria in a marathon five-set match to clinch the Rome Masters and continue his golden run.
"I don't know. It's unbelievable for me. It's my best year in my career. I am playing very, very good and I have a lot of confidence with me and I hope I improve my tennis for the next year. I hope to keep the level for all the year," said Nadal.
Nadal was expected to play his first round match in Hamburg against Russian Igor Andreev on Tuesday. (AP)